The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) is operated by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) on behalf of the European Commission (EC). C3S was declared operational in 2018 and continues to expand and grow. In order to ensure that the evolution and expansion of C3S is relevant to its users, evidence of users’ needs has to be collected in a structured and traceable way. To facilitate this process, the User Requirements Database (URDB) has been designed and maintained as part of the Evaluation and Quality Control (EQC) component of C3S.
The URDB presents a centralised, interactive hub for all C3S requirements, including those relating to the Climate Data Store (CDS), and the Sectoral Information Systems (SIS). It will be maintained as a living database with continuous access by ECMWF, with new and emerging requirements being inputted when provided. The main aim of the URDB is to collect user requirements and feedback, and facilitate the translation of these requirements into recommendations for different aspects of C3S, through the production of User Requirement Analysis Documents and within the URDB itself. This allows the continuous improvement of the C3S in line with user needs.
Previous C3S contracts have already gathered close to 2600 requirements that have been entered into the URDB, and more requirements are added as they are collected through the ongoing C3S activities. Requirements and feedback can also be provided for inclusion in the URDB by emailing c3s-eqc@ecmwf.int.